Montagu Evans appoints heritage and townscape specialist in Edinburgh

Catharine Kidd
Catharine Kidd

MONTAGU Evans has announced the appointment of Catharine Kidd as a partner in the firm’s Historic Environment and Townscape (HEaT) team, based at the partnership’s Edinburgh office.

The move is designed to strengthen the company’s planning and heritage offer to support growth across Scotland and the north of England.

Catharine joins from Turley, where she spent eight years as director of heritage and townscape.

Craig Wallace, partner at Montagu Evans, said, “There is a growing market for heritage and townscape services in Scotland, as well as the north of England and Northern Ireland, particularly when complemented with townscape and visual impact advice to inform development design and planning strategy. Catharine is a pioneer and market leader in this specialist area, with longstanding expertise and a collaborative approach that makes her an important strategic hire for our planning team in Scotland and the wider business.

“She joins a number of new recruits joining our expanding planning team in Scotland, including Katherine Innes as senior planner, Matt Short as planner and Frank Trimble as graduate. In London we have also recently welcomed historic environment expert Emma Lawrence.”

Catharine Kidd added, “Joining Montagu Evans at this time is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a growing team with the ability to provide a wide range of planning skills to support clients – including on new development, strategic advice on historic town and city-centre renewal, the adaptation and re-use of historic and listed buildings, masterplanning, and regeneration of complex sites and sensitive land.

“Managing change of sensitive areas effectively needs in-depth expertise of heritage assets and/or urban contexts, combined with development knowledge of building and land uses, legislation, the planning system and development contexts, and a collaborative approach to working with design teams and stakeholders. I’m looking forward to working with team members and services lines across the firm to overcome challenges and optimise outcomes for clients.”